According to custom department statistics, the three eastern Indian
cities are more preferred as routes for narcotics, arms smuggling and
transfusion of contraband notes than even Mumbai, the den of underworld
bigwigs.

The country recorded a total of 35,500 cases of
smuggling and commercial fraud in 2012-13 as compared to 33,251 cases in
the previous year, according to Central Board of Excise and Customs
(CBEC) statistics.

Of these, less than 5 percent cases were
reported from Mumbai whereas Kolkata, Guwahati and Shillong accounted
for over 64 percent of all the cases.

Porous border and lack of coordination between the various agencies like
Border Security Force, state police, Narcotic and Crime Bureau, Custom
department and department of Revenue Intelligence have mainly attributed
to the rise of trans-border crimes through the eastern fence of the
country.

There
is also no proper mechanism between India and these neighbouring
countries for a coordinated effort to check the menace, pointed out home
ministry officials.

They said in March this year senior
officials of India and Bangladesh’s border guards discussed trans-border
crime committed by criminals on both sides of the border, prevention of
smuggling of fake Indian currency, cattle and contraband.

A
27-member BSF delegation led by its Director General Subhash Joshi met
the visiting 23-member delegation of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) led
by its chief, Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed in New Delhi to find ways to curb the
crime.

Similar meetings were being held time to time with other
neighbouring countries too, but there was no concrete outcome, rued the
home ministry officials.

According to a finance ministry report,
of late smugglers have gradually shifted focus from gold, silver and
electronic goods to arms, ammunitions, explosives, fake currency notes
and narcotic drugs.

It said that heroin and cannbis (hashish and
ganja) regularly came into India through the Indo-Nepal border, from
where the drugs found way to other parts of country via northeastern
states, particularly through Manipur.

Smuggling of synthetic
drugs like amphetamine and methamphetamine into and out of the northeast
has been on the rise of late, according to Custom department
statistics.

These items mainly enter India from Myanmar through
Mizoram and Manipur. Apart from various parts of India, these drugs also
find its way into Bangladesh through Assam and West Bengal, a BSF
spokesperson T K Chetri told bdnews24.com.

BSF earlier this
month, launching a crackdown, arrested two Bangladeshi nationals from
near Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal while they were trying to
smuggle Phensedyl and ganja to Bangladesh.

Arms and ammunition
too were regularly smuggled to India through Indo-Myanmar,
Indo-Bangladesh and Indo-Nepal border. Various underground groups active
in Northeast and the Islamist fundamentalist groups, which have spread
their networks through sleeper cells, across the country are the main
beneficiaries of these illegal consignments, said a Guwahati-based
custom official on condition of anonymity.

Fake Indian currency
notes and cattle are two other most frequently smuggled items through
Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal and Assam, according to the BSF
sources.